When we began designing the near-future world of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, we started by researching how new and emerging technologies today would influence the future of advanced weaponry. That lead us to discover current R&D focused on innovations in 3D printing that will influence the battlefield of tomorrow – granting soldiers the unique ability to print their own gear on the field. Based on this research, we developed the Integrated Munitions Rifle – also known as the IMR. The design of this particular rifle presented a unique challenge of showing the printing process to the player on the rifle model. “One of the opportunities to solve with this particular weapon was how to communicate to the player the bullet printing and feed system.” Said Joe Arcovich, Lead Weapon Artist at Sledgehammer Games. “It required lot of back and forth between animation, modeling and design to make sure that the timing of the reload was quick enough for gameplay, but would still show the cool effect of the bullets getting fed into the chamber from the printer.”

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The success of this particular weapon depended not only on the action involved with animating the ammo printing process, but the overall aesthetic of the weapon itself. “It was extremely important to us that the instant the player picks up the IMR, they immediately become excited about the weapon.” Said Joseph Salud, Art Director at Sledgehammer Games.” It needed to clearly say ‘advanced weapon,’ and at the same time be grounded and credible. The IMR needed to feel like a serious piece of advanced hardware, and not a piece of science fiction.”

Check out the reload animation and the display on the IMR as it prints more bullets at the 2:22 mark.

Check back on our shgdevblog each week as we unveil more of development process of the various weapons, vehicles, and technology found in our game. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and Instagram for more updates from our studio.